Thanks SURFBOY. I'm willing to ignore it, but my wife certainly isn't. Would sending a letter based on one of the templates referred to elsewhere on this site (I can't post a link to the letter template thread for some reason) help expedite the situation, or risk making it worse?

Thanks oddjobber. That would be my approach, but the threat of a debt recovery process is making my wife sick with worry. I'm hoping there's something I can do that, while not acknowledging nor accepting their claim, means I don't have this threat hanging over us for the next few weeks.

My car was parked at an APCOA car park next to a mainline station a few weeks ago and payment was attempted via text message, as had been done many times in the past and since. For whatever reason, the payment by text didn't go through. Two days later there was a "Parking Enforcement Notice" on the windscreen that said if the parking charge was paid within 14 days it "would be reduced to £40.00" (it didn't say what the non-reduced charge would be). I called APCOA the next day to explain the situation but was told I needed to put it in writing, which I did that day. I didn't hear anything for a while until I received a "Notice to Owner and Final Reminder" from a company called Parking Collection Services, who stated they were acting on behalf of APCOA. This letter said that I now owed them £120! I called APCOA and they told me they had no record of receiving my letter (note that they didn't say they hadn't received it, just that they had no record of it being received) and that I had to deal with Parking Collection Services on the matter. LESSON: If you're going to send any written correspondence, make sure you send it registered post. So I emailed and sent a registered letter to Parking Collection Services, for which I have proof of delivery. My letter requested a response within 3 working days of (recorded) receipt of the letter and I heard nothing back from them. Then over the weekend (over two weeks after Parking Collection Services received my letter) I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, which appears on the face of it to be a different company to Parking Collection Services although their addresses are almost identical. This letter now states I owe £140, which must be paid within 7 days! If it were just me, I'd ignore this as unenforceable as advised elsewhere. However, the prospect of going through a debt recovery process has my wife extremely worried and so I really need to do something to sort this out. My instinct is to contact APCOA and explain the situation to them again and even offer to pay for the 2 days parking as has been done every other time the same car park has been used. In fact, over the last two years, I've spent almost £900 with APCOA with over £250 of this being via the text payment service! I'm not a crook trying to avoid paying for parking! I'd very much appreciate any sound advice the members of this forum can offer!